Most remodels in St. Johns County need a permit. The short version: if the work is purely cosmetic, it does not. If it touches structure, an exterior opening, or an electrical, gas, mechanical or plumbing system, it does. A kitchen where you replace cabinets, counters and flooring and change nothing behind them is exempt. The same kitchen with the sink moved four feet is not.
That line is where almost every real project sits, so it is worth understanding exactly where it falls before you set a scope.
What is exempt, regardless of what it costs
The Florida Building Code's permit exemption list covers finish work. Painting, wallpaper, floor coverings of any kind, cabinet work, countertops and shelving do not require a building permit no matter what they cost. You can spend a lot of money on any of those and still not need a permit for them.
The trap is that the exemption covers the finish, not what is behind it. New cabinets are exempt. Adding the two dedicated circuits your new appliance layout needs is not. A tile floor is exempt. Removing the wall you are tiling up to is not. Homeowners run into this when a project starts as a refresh and grows into something that opens a wall.
What always needs a permit
St. Johns County states the requirement broadly. An owner or authorized agent who intends to construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish or change the occupancy of a building or structure, or to erect, install, enlarge, alter, repair, remove, convert or replace any required impact-resistant coverings or any electrical, gas or plumbing system, must apply for a permit.
Read that list carefully, because two items surprise people. Repair is in it, so a like-for-like replacement can still be permitted work. And required impact-resistant coverings means windows, doors and shutters, which is why a window swap in Northeast Florida is a permit and a product-approval question rather than a shopping decision. The product approval side of that is checked separately from the permit itself.
In practice, the remodel scopes that reliably need one are: moving or removing walls, changing a roof line, altering the structure, adding conditioned space, changing plumbing or drain locations, altering the electrical service or adding circuits, replacing or relocating HVAC equipment, replacing windows or exterior doors, re-roofing, decks, pools and anything that changes how the building is used.
Expect more than one permit
A remodel of any size usually carries a building permit plus separate trade permits. St. Johns County offers online permitting to mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractors, which tells you how the county thinks about it: those trades pull their own.
For a homeowner, the practical consequence is a schedule one. Each trade permit carries its own inspections, and an inspection that fails or gets scheduled late stalls everything behind it. When a design-build team runs the job, permit sequencing is part of the construction schedule rather than a series of separate applications that happen to arrive in the right order.
Who is allowed to pull it
Contractors must be licensed and registered with St. Johns County to obtain a permit or perform any construction activity. Licensed at the state level is not sufficient on its own. The county maintains a contractor license search so you can confirm both before you sign anything, and it is worth doing even with a firm you have been referred to.
Jay Wilson holds Florida Certified General Contractor license CGC1534920. When you talk to any contractor, the question to ask is not whether they are licensed. It is who will be named as the applicant, who responds if the county asks for more information, and who schedules and meets the inspectors.
The Notice of Commencement, which is not paperwork
For permitted projects exceeding $5,000, a recorded Notice of Commencement is required before the first Building Services inspection. This is a real gate, not a formality. Without the recorded notice on file, the inspection does not happen, and the trades stack up behind it.
It is also lien law. The Notice of Commencement is what puts subcontractors and suppliers on notice of who owns the property and who is doing the work, which affects how you protect yourself when you make payments. Ask early who records it and when.
What plan review actually looks at
Plan submittals are reviewed for compliance with the Florida Building Code, the Land Development Code, and other applicable laws. Two different bodies of rules, and they fail projects for different reasons. The building code cares whether the thing you drew can be built safely. The Land Development Code cares whether it belongs where you want to put it: setbacks, lot coverage, impervious area, height.
That is why a plan can be structurally perfect and still come back. It is also why an addition should be tested against setbacks before anyone spends money on drawings.
The constraints that sit outside the building department
The county notes that restrictions recorded in county public records may limit development, and that water management districts, state agencies or federal agencies may require additional permits. Three of these come up often enough in this market to check by default:
Floodplain. If the property sits in a special flood hazard area, the floodplain rules apply on top of everything else, and the 50 percent substantial improvement rule can change the entire project. Check this first, because it is the one that can make the rest moot.
HOA and architectural review. In the master-planned communities around Nocatee and Ponte Vedra, the architectural review board is the first gate, not the last, and it runs on its own calendar. Approval there is separate from and earlier than the county permit.
Septic and utilities. Adding a bedroom or a bathroom can raise a septic capacity question that has nothing to do with the building department, and it is far cheaper to answer before the plan is final.
What to do with this
Write down what will physically change, not the name of the room. "Kitchen remodel" tells the county nothing. "Remove a 12 foot non-bearing wall, relocate the sink and dishwasher, add two circuits, replace the range hood with a ducted unit, replace flooring throughout" tells them exactly what permits apply, and it is also the description that lets two contractors price the same job.
Then confirm the specifics for your property. The St. Johns County Building Department answers scope questions with the address and a written description of the proposed work, and a determination from the building official is the only answer that is binding.
Wilson & Co serves homeowners in St. Augustine, Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, Nocatee, Palm Coast and the Flagler area, and handles design, permitting and construction as one process on whole home renovations and additions. If you want the permit question answered against your actual scope rather than in general, call (904) 792-6175 with the property address and what you are trying to change.
If you are already collecting bids, normalizing proposals before comparing prices is the companion to this. A bid that excludes permit fees and coordination is not cheaper than one that includes them.